Many consumers have a preference for products that are purported to have lesser adverse environmental impacts than other similar products. This preference is evidenced by the growth of the “organic” foods market, and by the labeling of products with markings such as “environmentally friendly” or “green.”
Apart from consumer preferences for environmentally friendly products, governments are increasingly regulating from an environmental standpoint the content of products. To ensure the widest distribution and acceptance of their products, manufacturers therefore have good reason to take into account a wide variety of differing environmental legal requirements.
The art has therefore begun to develop a number of different techniques for taking into account environmental issues when formulating products and acquiring their raw materials. In one approach the art has developed a public “grading system” that grades possible adverse environmental effects of products. Such systems are known to be associated with certain seals of approval by organizations having a perceived objective reputation regarding environmental matters.
To be commercially viable, a product should also meet certain cost and performance criteria, regardless of environmental attributes. Yet, available grading systems do not take into account a product's efficacy or the desirable attributes of a product. It is therefore desirable to provide a system for evaluating the environmental impact of chemical components, and thereby formulating products having improved environmental characteristics and performance attributes.